Biden, Bennett and Bin Salman: On Killing the Messengers
30.05.2022
This article is about crimes by the State. In particular, it is about crimes against journalists by the State. It is about killing messengers for exposing the truth.
Khashoggi Murdered by the Saudi State
Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed by the Saudi Arabian State. Bin Salman sent henchmen to kill him and chop his body up, when he went into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. That was in 2018. The Saudi Head of State stands accused of assassinating a journalist. The facts are known. The Saudi Arabian state has paid no price yet. We call for sanctions. Bin Salman is still in charge.
Assange being Assassinated slowly by the United States State
Journalist Julian Assange is slowly being assassinated by the US State apparatus. For 10 years, the US State has hunted him down. The US State did this with the help of the Swedish, British and later Ecuador States. For what crime? Irony of Ironies: For making known previous US “State crimes”. These include Assange publishing the video and audio showing the targeting and killing of two other journalists. They were Reuters journalists, messengers in Baghdad, doing their job.
Two Reuters Journalists Assassinated by the US State
In 2007, two US Apache helicopters swooped down towards a Baghdad Street and mowed down two Reuters journalists, Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen, and nine other civilians during the USA’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Iraq. The US authorities flatly denied the killings were intentional. They claimed self-defense. They continued to cover up this war crime for three whole years, refusing to hand over the helicopter tapes, as the head of the Reuters bureau in Iraq repeatedly complained.
It seemed the perfect war crime.
Then journalist Julian Assange published, with the collaboration of major newspapers, the Wikileaks documents on what went on behind the scenes in U.S. wars, including the very video recording taken from the helicopter cockpit.
The US state apparatus went ballistic. And has stayed ballistic. And for good reason. Here is the report in The Guardian as to what is on the tapes during the shooting:
‘The lead helicopter, using the moniker Crazyhorse, opens fire. “Hahaha. I hit 'em,” shouts one of the American crew. Another responds a little later: “Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards.”
‘One of the men on the ground, believed to be Chmagh, is seen wounded and trying to crawl to safety. One of the helicopter crew is heard wishing for the man to reach for a gun, even though there is none visible nearby, so he has the pretext for opening fire: “All you gotta do is pick up a weapon.” A van draws up next to the wounded man and Iraqis climb out. They are unarmed and start to carry the victim to the vehicle in what would appear to be an attempt to get him to hospital. One of the helicopters opens fire with armour-piercing shells. “Look at that. Right through the windshield,” says one of the crew. Another responds with a laugh.
‘Sitting behind the windscreen were two children who were wounded.
‘After ground forces arrive and the children are discovered, the American air crew blame the Iraqis. “Well it’s their fault for bringing kids in to a battle,” says one. “That's right,” says another’ (5 April 2010).
Assange had this video and its transcription published in The Guardian, New York Times, El Pais, Der Spiegel and Le Monde simultaneously.
From then onwards, the USA has chosen to hound out investigative journalist Julian Assange. The USA has given those powerful newspapers a “pass”. We are forced to wonder if the USA expects something in return.
First Assange was framed by the Swedish state on two clearly trumped-up rape and molesting charges so as to get him extradited from the UK to Sweden, from where the USA could more easily get hold of him. He then took refuge in a basement of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. There he would remain for seven years.
The fake charges were dropped seven whole years later.
The British police meanwhile charged Assange with not having shown up for bail in 2010 when he was wanted by the Swedish police. So, he had to stay hiding in the Embassy to avoid extradition to a vengeful USA State apparatus.
Then a right-wing government in Ecuador came to power and handed Assange over to the British police in 2019. The journalist hero has been in a high security prison near London in solitary confinement since then.
A long legal battle against his extradition to the USA ended in April, and he is due to be extradited to the USA to face spying charges. He could get life in prison or even the death penalty. There are right-now protests all over the world to try to save Julian Assange. The newly elected Labour Prime Minister of Australia – Assange is Australian – has received a formal petition signed by over 700,000 people to move to get Assange to Australia or a place of his choice. The new Prime Minister Albanese, himself, has in the past called for the release of Julian Assange. We quote from ABC News Australia, “While in Opposition, newly elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is reported to have told a February 2021 caucus meeting that ‘enough was enough’ and he ‘can't see what’s served by keeping [Assange] incarcerated”.
The Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer on Julian Assange in 2021 is clear. Melzer accuses four States: the USA, UK, Sweden and the new Government of Ecuador of participating in torturing this journalist. I would like to quote what he said from the site of the UN Human Rights Office of the Commissioner:
“... there has been a relentless and unrestrained campaign of public mobbing, intimidation and defamation against Mr. Assange, not only in the United States, but also in the United Kingdom, Sweden and, more recently, Ecuador ....
“In the course of the past nine years [ten years now], Mr. Assange has been exposed to persistent, progressively severe abuse ranging from systematic judicial persecution and arbitrary confinement ... and from deliberate collective ridicule, insults and humiliation, to open instigation of violence and even repeated calls for his assassination. ... In 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution I have never seen a group of democratic States ganging up to deliberately isolate, demonize and abuse a single individual for such a long time and with so little regard for human dignity and the rule of law,” Melzer said. “The collective persecution of Julian Assange must end here and now!”
President Biden has not distinguished himself from Trump in regard to the Assange case, so he must take the blame, too.
Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh murdered by Israeli Army
On 11 May – just two weeks ago – the Israeli army aimed for and killed Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin. She is the Al Jazeera journalist known as “the voice of Palestine” and was covering an Israeli army raid. She is, it is important to note, a dual citizen, Palestinian and American. (See our article Shireen Abu Akleh assassinated twice by Israeli Army – on our web site, on 26 May in Kreol.) The Israeli State must be boycotted for this type of action. Instead Bennett continues Israeli territorial expansion into Palestine every day. The USA under Trump “gave Jerusalem” (not theirs to give, as it turns out) to Israel, against international law. So cocksure does this make Israel that its army attacks Shireen’s funeral march and her pall-bearers in Jerusalem, thus trying to kill her twice.
Conclusion
All this to say that the State world-wide is violent in regard to journalists, especially those bearing the truth. Israel bombed and completely destroyed Al Jazeera and Associate Press’s building in Gaza in 2021. Twenty years earlier, Al Jazeera’s offices in Kabul in Afghanistan were bombed by a US Missile.
In LALIT, we continue to remain shocked by the silence of the Mauritian press and radio on these assassinations of journalists by the State and bombing of press offices. Journalists need to take a stand in public against this targeted persecution and assassination.
